Theft of Dragons (Princes of Naverstrom)

by John Forrester

  The Ring of Galdora sent a sickening energy surging through her body at each heartbeat. When she felt an unbearable frenzy of power compressed inside she released the force and pushed up hard against the battering ram, anchoring herself against the stone floor. She yelped, terrified, as the push caused the steel ram to shoot up into the air at the speed of a bolt springing from a hundred-pound crossbow.

  Murmurs and shouts echoed out across the company as the ram disappeared into the low, smoky clouds. Master Vhelan flailed his hands in an ineffective attempt at preventing the ram from escaping, or perhaps from stopping it from diving down onto the group.

  Sebine felt mortified and embarrassed at the loss of control over the push. In a few heartbeats the steel ram slammed down against the stone square and sent a massive, booming sound thundering across the plaza. The assembled sorcerers and soldiers jumped back in fear and cringed, cowering against the unexpected blow.

  Master Vhelan sighed testily and narrowed his eyes at Sebine. "This was your idea?"

  "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to cause it to fly up so fast. I only wanted to raise it up to the level of the keystone."

  A light seemed to ignite in the sorcerer's eyes and he nodded, thoughtful, and glanced back at the Arcanum. He stretched out his hands again and was joined by the other Hakkadians gathered around him. They raised the battering ram to the height of the keystone, positioning it perfectly to pound the stone.

  "Now do the same thing," Master Vhelan said, his voice reassuring. "With the same force you did last time, but this time aim it at the keystone."

  Though hesitant, Sebine focused her mind on drawing in the same power through the Ring of Galdora. Soon it burst inside her with a bull's rush of pleasure seething in through her teeth and chest and stomach, making her rage with ecstasy. Her laugh was hideous and beautiful and caused the crowd around her to melt back like a wave returning to the sea.

  One focus, one fantastic push, one strike left the shimmering keystone splintering with a horrific sound like the separation of a demon from a child's body. Sebine thought the entirety of the Arcanum might come collapsing to the ground and the wizards inside smothered under the weight of the stone structure. Her feeling of guilt died in an instant as the keystone fused together in a flash of brilliant light, and in a moment, the light had fled the stone.

  "Now! Strike the doors again," shouted Master Vhelan.

  This time Sebine felt the rhythm of the ram's pounding and joined in the sorcerers with a push of her own. She felt the power burst over her like the feeling of cold water running swiftly over you from a mountain river. At each pounding of the ram against the door she pressed hard and the stone shattered, a dust cloud forming up at the point where the gorgon's steel head struck.

  A wall of movement distracted Sebine's attention off to the left and she swiveled her head around and caught sight of a company of soldiers marching towards them. Fear lanced through her at the threat and she tugged on Master Vhelan's robe and pointed out the men.

  "More knights joining our cause." The old sorcerer sniffed and returned to his casting. "I wouldn't worry about the King's guard. They've been either bribed or dealt with."

  But Sebine felt an itch in her stomach and turned back to study the approaching company of soldiers as they fanned out and assembled in squads around the Arcanum. Two figures stood out amongst the company, one that sent Sebine's heart racing.

  "Tael!" she shouted, and raced after him, navigating her way through the men. At her approach he charged forward and scooped her into his long, strong arms and she felt whole and ached for his lips, but realized there were scores of eyes watching them.

  "So you got to ride on your own dragon?" His mischievous face grinned in a mock display of jealously. "Next time we'll be riding dragons of our own together."

  She grimaced, glancing at the clouds. "It's hideous...feels like your stomach is up in your neck. The speed and the wind and the smell of smoke from the dragon is so overpowering."

  "It sounds amazing." He chuckled, and took her hand as they sauntered up together to the front of the group. Master Vhelan commanded one last great push of the ram and a lower portion of the massive stone door shattered and collapsed inward, allowing space for a line of men to enter.

  A cheer went out across the two companies and swords slapped against shields in a fit of battle rush. Master Vhelan raised a hand to quiet the army, his face hard and focused, and the square went silent to listen to the old sorcerer.

  "Each squad will protect a sorcerer assigned to them and two squads will flank in together. Only such a balancing force will win the day against the menacing threat of the wizards. You two squads, go!" Master Vhelan motioned two of his sorcerers to join the two squads as they marched towards the shattered doors. The brave men filed inside the Arcanum one-by-one until all the men disappeared.

  The assembled army fell silent listening to the shouts and the drone and whine of spells being cast inside. Then a tense silence fell and Sebine could see the men around her leaning forward as if anxious to join the battle.

  The boom and whoosh of an explosion jettisoned a stream of bone and blood and bits of skin and organ and muscle out onto the surprised and furious faces of the soldiers and sorcerers alike. Tael raised his arm to shield Sebine from the macabre spray and she found herself going sick from the stench of it all.

  Her hair was lifted up by Tael as she bent over and heaved and coughed and sniffled. She found an anger rising hard inside her heart against the wizards of the Arcanum for so utterly destroying those men. And as she stood it seemed like the anger had spread to the soldiers around her until a bloodlust raged in the eyes of the knights.

  But Master Vhelan's face remained impassive and his shrewd eyes stayed fixed on the cracked doors. Some inner gears and wheels in his mind clicked and whirred and spun to the rhythm of his thoughts. After a long while he turned and faced the army.

  "We only have to kill Master Loral of the Arcanum. Only he holds the charm that protects the tainted King." The sorcerer once again faced the massive doors. "They've positioned their strongest inside the entrance, so we have no choice but to do the same. Bishop Draven? Give me your best squad."

  The Bishop ambled over and motioned to the squad that Kealian led: a group of menacing-looking soldiers who possessed the dull eyes of a bull that's maimed and gouged many men. Master Vhelan waved for Sebine and Tael to follow him along with several other elder sorcerers. Sebine felt the thud of fear beating in her heart and she snuck her hand into Tael's as they made their way up to the crack between the great doors.

  Master Vhelan was the first one inside and he cast a shimmering shield of light around himself as he entered the dimly lit room. Sebine and Tael followed and found several testing shots of lightning and fire cast at the old sorcerer, but they quickly stopped when the wizards found lack of purchase. One of the wizards glanced at Sebine's approach and raised his hands to ready a spell.

  "Would you really kill Princess Sebine?" Master Vhelan shouted. "I thought you were sworn to protect the King and his family. An ancient curse that keeps you bound in service to a corrupt man, half-demon-spawn and half-human."

  "It is clear that the Princess has changed her loyalties," one wizard said. "By the rule of law we are not prevented in such a situation."

  Another wizard in shimmering blue robes raised a hand to silence them. "We will do the right thing in the eyes of the gods. Now tell me, Master Vhelan, why have you made such an offensive move against the Arcanum? First you send sorcerers to slay me—and fail—and now you send an army and the dragons against me? When the King first sought to hire the Hakkadians I knew it was a grave mistake. And now I see with my own eyes that my fears were valid."

  "Yes, Master Loral, if your fears include the slaying of the witch-born King then yes, they were valid." Master Vhelan assumed a relaxed stance and lowered the shimmering bubble of protection around himself. "But tell me this, wise wizard, what is more important to you, the whims of a mad K
ing or the starving, pleading voices of your people? I have tried many times to parlay with you and your wizards and you've spurned me every time. The actions I took today were done as a last resort. My people are desperate in their desire to free themselves from the Princes of Naverstrom, and your people living hopeless on the streets are desperate to free themselves from the tyranny of the King."

  Master Loral clapped his hands with languid movements and yawned in boredom. "A fine speech for a nomad and a cave dweller... Since when do you care about the needs of the common folks of Trikar?"

  "You know not the origins and history of my people. Why do you have such arrogance and dismissiveness in your eyes? Before we were bound and chained to the Lords of Naverstrom, before we wandered from village to city—always spurned, before the conquest and crushing of our civilization, we were a great nation for thousands of years."

  "You give a speech like the proud Malathians, always moaning and complaining about how they were once a vast and powerful empire. Just look at them now..." Master Loral smirked and with a flick of his wrist sent a brilliant lightning bolt snapping at the old sorcerer. Sebine shouted in warning but Master Vhelan just grinned as if expecting the spell and started chuckling as the lightning bolt melted and transformed into luminescent snakes that writhed and twisted as they slithered back towards Master Loral.

  "Yet again in good faith I attempted to parlay with you and again you spurned me, and even traitorously tried to kill me while my defenses were down. This is the honor of the Arcanum?" The sorcerer opened his mouth until a gaping maw it became, and a hideous, mocking laughter poured forth—visible laughter formed of black, inky shadow tendrils that spiraled out towards the wizards. The masters of the Arcanum covered their ears in terror as the maleficent sound echoed across the vast stone chamber, and Sebine and Tael followed suit, cringing in primal fear and awe at the power of the Hakkadian leader.

  "I am the Champion of Duelists, Lord of the Living Night, and Master of the Dragons." Master Vhelan seemed to grow in stature as he spoke and Sebine could see an eerie-green light shine around his figure. "Imagine if my power can so easily be brought low by the Princes of Naverstrom, and imagine if that power were fully freed from the lair. The world would be doomed! Why do you fight me instead of joining me? Why? When the whole world is weakened with the way cleared by the mad King Braxion, spawn of the Witch Koroshen, daughter of Prince Xanthes of Naverstrom, son of the Nameless, the Unknowable, the Darkness and the Void. Why do you not rise up and join us against this evil?"

  Master Loral opened his mouth and bellowed out a cruel laugh. He laughed and laughed until tears streamed down his eyes and his body began convulsing in a strange fit of delirium. The shape of his face incrementally changed over the course of his laughter, and with terror, Sebine shrieked as his jaw unhinged and snapped down and back, ripping the skin, and the teeth and flap of the skin above the wizard's mouth rotated up and around until a black shape emerged from within the mouth. A demon's diseased face appeared, its glowing red eyes provoking every eye in the chamber, and it stretched out poxed hands from within the wizard's mouth and reached around and crushed Master Loral's skull until only the demon's head remained mounted atop the trunk.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  AS THE WIZARD'S head had been crushed by the demon, Tael summoned the shadows around himself, keeping his pleading eyes on Sebine. She read his intention and he felt the magical power from her hand flow into his and rise into a raging river of energy that joined with the casting of his spell. Together they disappeared into pale silhouettes and from the shocked glances of Kealian and the other knights, Tael knew they were utterly invisible.

  "We always knew you'd turn traitor," the demon's silky, seductive voice said. "You thought you were plotting in secret without our knowledge? All you've done is to strengthen and solidify our position here in this pitiful Kingdom. And your moves against us? All for nothing. Your people living in Naverstrom have all turned against you, Vhelan. They no longer consider themselves Hakkadians. What is it that you still fight for? The forgotten memory of a ruined empire lost in the northern steppes?"

  While the demon had spoken, Tael and Sebine stalked along the wall's edge circling around and behind the four wizards and the demon now mounted atop Master Loral's still animated body. Undiscovered, they positioned themselves in the shadows of an alcove containing the statue of the Goddess Naria, Protector of the Weak, Defender of the Downtrodden.

  "We fight for what is right and true—for what we believe in." Master Vhelan's voice wavered as he faced the maniacal demon.

  "Nothing of your world will remain. All Hakkadian memories, all histories, all lore and legend, all stories will be wiped clean from the world in the coming dark plague across this pathetic world. Night is rising." The demon raised the wizard's clenched fist into the air. "Night is rising! And all will bow down and prostrate themselves at the conquering feet of Prince Xanthes."

  At the shouts and screams of pain pouring from Master Vhelan's mouth, Tael nodded to Sebine and she lifted her hands to cast. A pulsing light shot from her fingers and struck the wizards and Master Loral's demon-possessed body. Sword forward, Tael charged at Master Loral and plunged Balensaar into the wizard's heart. He shouted for Kealian's help and the knights lunged at the stunned wizards.

  The demon roared and caused the attackers to plummet to their knees, hands clasped over their ears. Tael grimaced as Balensaar raged with brilliant, runic light and the sword gave him strength to push himself up. With Master Loral's lifeless body lying face-first in a pool of expanding blood, the demon tried to extricate itself from the wizard's trunk. But Tael was faster, bringing down Balensaar with blazing speed into the black bubble of the demon's wriggling form. The blade sliced through the thick, mucous membrane of the form and inky blood gurgled out from the demon.

  An abominable wail poured into the air from the demon's mouth and rose midway up to the ceiling, swirled as a black vapor cloud, and released itself as ash onto the now sliced and slaughtered bodies of the wizards.

  The battle was over. Tael quickly stabbed out the eyes of the wizards—remembering the admonishment in Perinith—and even found and bludgeoned the loose eyeballs of Master Loral rolling around in the blood. The knights and sorcerers looked horrified at his action, but remained steady and did not intervene.

  Master Vhelan had slumped unconscious to the ground and his elder sorcerers kneeled at his side, feeling his pulse and waving glowing hands over his head. Soon the old Hakkadian leader roused and opened fatigued eyes to glance around. The quick shock that appeared on his face melted away by the reassuring nods of his fellow sorcerers.

  "The young supplicant slew the demon?" Kealian's voice was disbelieving and his eyes studied Tael with a hard, probing stare.

  The old sorcerer was lifted to his feet as the group was met by a new squad of soldiers led by Bishop Draven. The priest surveyed the room with curious, critical eyes until he gazed at the bubbling pool of black blood: the remains of the demon and Master Loral's body.

  "And to think I helped keep that demon alive in Perinith." Tael's voice was slow and apologetic as he remembered the battle against the two Hakkadian sorcerers. "I thought I was saving Master Loral but I was really fighting for the demon...so bizarre."

  "Don't you worry a thing," Bishop Draven said, and rested a hand on Tael's shoulder. "You did what you thought was right at the time. You had no idea what infested the wizard."

  "Likely the demon was weak and newly burrowed in Master Loral from his trip to Naverstrom." Master Vhelan studied the grotesque remains. "Little wonder there are only few remaining wizards here...scores must have fled when they sensed the dark change in their Master."

  The sorcerer shuffled forward and kicked through the remains above the wizard's headless trunk until he unearthed a silver amulet that had hung around the wizard's neck. "Your blade, boy. Destroy the charm."

  Tael obeyed and brought Balensaar down and shattered the silver amulet in a sparkl
e of electric-blue light. The charm protecting the King was broken. The group stared solemnly at the fading light of the amulet. More squads of soldiers strode through the room, guided by sorcerers to probe deeper into the Arcanum.

  "Don't ruin anything," Sebine said, and fixed a firm gaze on Master Vhelan. "The Arcanum is part of our legacy as a people. Give me your word that you won't lay waste or burn anything inside. Do what you must to stop any resistance, but leave the sanctity of the Arcanum intact."

  Master Vhelan seemed surprised at Sebine's strength, but nodded in acceptance and several sorcerers chased after the squads that had gone further inside. "Very well, we will respect your wishes, Princess Sebine. Though our work is not yet finished. Dawn comes soon and with it the death of King Braxion. Let us go."

  "You have the blessing of the Calathian Church," Bishop Draven said, and bowed to Sebine and Master Vhelan.

  "And that of the wizards of the Arcanum." Heads turned to where the voice of Master Greyth Shalinor spoke. He wore robes of brilliant blue silk that shimmered and shone in the dim light. His eyes were fierce and commanding and the room went quiet at his ambling approach.

  Tael wanted to run to him, to explain everything, for he was ashamed for being a part of the assault on the Arcanum. When he'd arrived to witness that massive steel battering ram slamming into the great gates, his heart felt angry and guilty at the violation of the sacred place. But seeing his grandfather's sober, accepting face Tael realized that everything was ok.

  "You sure made a mess of my gates." Master Greyth scanned around at the rubble and ruin. "Took me years to cast that spell over the keystone. Impossible to break through with your weak, Hakkadian magic." He took a step towards Princess Sebine and inspected her as if she were some strange creature. "You did this? You're the Princess but you don't smell like King Braxion. Different father? Has to be true...you're too pretty to come from his corrupt seed. But what's this ring that you wear on your finger? May I look at it?"